The use of personal steam spas has become a popular method for treatment by physical and massage therapist as well as chiropractors and other professionals in the spa services and sports medicine fields. The problem with the current state of the art steam spas are that they are large, expensive units which require a great deal of space.
These large units can cause problems, especially in cities or other areas where space is of great concern. Many individuals, spas, therapists and other professionals desire to have access to a steam spa; however, the space requirement makes these units impractical as they are hard to move, not easy to store, and few even provide the capacity to be disassembled to take up less space.
A few attempts have been made to make collapsible steam canopies, such as that of U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,753 to Wege et al., hereinafter referred to as the '753 patent. However, the canopies disclosed in the '735 patent and similar steam canopies are not easily or readily collapsible. Although the '753 patent claims a collapsible canopy, it is not truly collapsible, but rather it is able to be disassembled.
In addition, much work is required to disassemble the assembled canopy disclosed in the '753 patent. For instance, in the embodiment described in the '735 patent, the poles which provide a rigid structure to the canopy must be first removed from their respective sleeves and then collapsed into smaller units. Only then is the canopy capable of being collapsed.
There are other drawbacks with existing portable sauna systems. One example is that many saunas are only usable in an upright position; they are not designed to be used by people in a supine or prone position.
There is a need in the art to provide an easily collapsible and portable steam canopy which does not require significant amounts of time or energy to collapse. Furthermore, there is a need in the art to provide a collapsible canopy that is easily stored and takes up a minimal amount of space while being usable in an upright, prone, or supine position.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a collapsible steam canopy which does not require any disassembly, but instead can be folded by the force of an individual's hands for easy storage and increased portability.